Peugeot 107 ignition switch burnt out stater motor costs of repair ?

[Deleted User]

3 months ago my car broke down , towed to garage and the starter motor was replaced. Got in the car yesterday and heard a bad noise as soon as it started, lurched down the drive and I pulled over tried to start a few times and nothing . Towed again to another garage and they suspect the ignition switch has burnt out the starter motor.

Can I ask any knowledgeable folks how much this is likely to cost and would the starter motor be under warranty or is this cause not related to the quality / longevity of it.

Many thanks

rich13348

The starter motor is a small motor that is attached to the flywheel of the engine and helps start the engine by turning the flywheel to start compression in the cylinders.
It is only designed to run for a few seconds at a time and if the solenoid (a rod of steel surrounded by an electromagnet that forces the gear of the starter motorout into position with the flywheel and engages the starter motor with the engine) stays on therefore forcing the starter motor to turn with the engine it will burn out in a few minutes.

This is why you are told to stop and turn the engine off if you hear a strange noise when the car starts. The starter motor may be under warrenty so they MIGHT replace it but effectively this is just customer abuse through ignorance of the situation. Also a starter motor stuck on can get very hot and can overheat and catch fire.

My guess is it will cost what it cost last time but get them to check the solenoid and switch also as it should not jam on like that and if it's the second time it's happened there is an underlying fault that needs investigated.

Strider590

As above, make sure the solenoid is pulled out and replaced.

The solenoid is effectively a big high powered relay, think of it as a remotely controlled switch, the ignition switch turns this on and the solenoid turns on the starter motor, this is to stop the ignition switch burning out. IF for some reason the solenoid did not turn off quickly enough it could potentially damage the starter motor.
Equally, poor fitment of the starter motor could also cause damage further down the line.

If it wasn't two different garages i'd suspect they were trying it on tbh, because a blown fuse or a damaged solenoid is a lot more likely than the ignition switch and starter motor.

But in all of these cases you would DEFINITELY hear some horrible crunching/grinding noises before the damage occurred.

[Deleted User]

Thankyou both , there was definitely some grinding noise but I only really heard how bad when I got out the car .

I will just wait to see what the garage say .

arcon5

rich13348 wrote: »

The starter motor is a small motor that is attached to the flywheel of the engine and helps start the engine by turning the flywheel to start compression in the cylinders.
It is only designed to run for a few seconds at a time and if the solenoid (a rod of steel surrounded by an electromagnet that forces the gear of the starter motorout into position with the flywheel and engages the starter motor with the engine) stays on therefore forcing the starter motor to turn with the engine it will burn out in a few minutes.

This is why you are told to stop and turn the engine off if you hear a strange noise when the car starts. The starter motor may be under warrenty so they MIGHT replace it but effectively this is just customer abuse through ignorance of the situation. Also a starter motor stuck on can get very hot and can overheat and catch fire.

My guess is it will cost what it cost last time but get them to check the solenoid and switch also as it should not jam on like that and if it's the second time it's happened there is an underlying fault that needs investigated.

What complete nonsense to put this down to customer abuse! And even if op did turn the engine off straight away, the SM is still damaged so ops not caused this!

rich13348

arcon5 wrote: »

What complete nonsense to put this down to customer abuse! And even if op did turn the engine off straight away, the SM is still damaged so ops not caused this!

How exactly is it damaged anyway. If when you let go of the key and the starter motor stays engaged that is the noise the op heard. If my car started making that noise I sure as hell wouldn't drive off I would turn the engine off pronto thus saving the starter motor and preventing a possible engine bay fire into the bargain.

I think a good tip to live by is: If it starts making a strange noise that it normally doesn't, don't use it.

arcon5

rich13348 wrote: »

How exactly is it damaged anyway. If when you let go of the key and the starter motor stays engaged that is the noise the op heard. If my car started making that noise I sure as hell wouldn't drive off I would turn the engine off pronto thus saving the starter motor and preventing a possible engine bay fire into the bargain.

I think a good tip to live by is: If it starts making a strange noise that it normally doesn't, don't use it.

You can figure that out surely?
If when op releases the key after starting the starter continues to be engaged then there is quite clearly a fault with the starter! Since it should disengage as soon as ignition changes position. So irrespective of whether op drive on with the noise or not the starter was damaged!

rich13348

A starter motor is not a single non serviceable unit. The bit that is faulty could be the solenoid that still holds the gear in which will cause the motor to be forced round by the engine crankshaft. Or it could be the ignition barrel that when let go does not break the circuit to the starter motor solenoid thus causing it to stay engaged to the engine again forcing the motor round. By driving the car with the starter motor engaged making a horrible racket the driver has exacerbated the problem. The actual motor replaced 3 months ago might well have been fine if it wasn't ruined by being run for far too long.

You can't say:

then there is quite clearly a fault with the starter!

When there might not have been. There certainly is now though.

rich13348

Actually I just reread the opriginal post and the op basically said that the garage suspected the ignition switch burnt out the starter motor. So if this is correct it means the starter was fine until it was wrecked by the car being driven when it was making a bad noise and would have been fine if the car was switched off immediately after the op noticed the continuing bad noise .

arcon5

rich13348 wrote: »

A starter motor is not a single non serviceable unit. The bit that is faulty could be the solenoid that still holds the gear in which will cause the motor to be forced round by the engine crankshaft. Or it could be the ignition barrel that when let go does not break the circuit to the starter motor solenoid thus causing it to stay engaged to the engine again forcing the motor round. By driving the car with the starter motor engaged making a horrible racket the driver has exacerbated the problem. The actual motor replaced 3 months ago might well have been fine if it wasn't ruined by being run for far too long.

You can't say:

When there might not have been. There certainly is now though.

I'm quite aware of how a starter works and you replace the whole unit not just the starters solenoid.

I despair. I just hope others don't agree with the suggestion it's op who is at fault